i know its a little late, but I want to be able to remember our trip and blogging seems to be the quickest way to do so. Sorry if I bore you out of your mind!
Day ONE SLC
On Thursday I flew up to Salt Lake to be able to spend the next day with my family. Worst flight ever. Well not ever... the one in high school from Florida to SLC I actually threw up... But there were at least 2 people that threw up on this one and everyone around me holding their mouths did not help my queasiness in the turbulence. Once we were safely on the ground my daddy picked me up and we went home. The next day my mommy and I went to the Wood Connection. I went a little crazy, but in spite of my upcoming cruise withheld some purchases regretfully. I will be going back there every trip now! (Don't tell Brad) :) We also stopped in Gordmans at the district... Super cute store reminds me of a nicer burlington coat factory. Then I went to lunch with Schnyde at this cute gelato place in Daybreak. I love talking to Schnyde she's soo funny and everytime we get together its like high school never ended. I miss my friends!!!! After that I went home and mi padres and Henna headed to Franklin Covey or Spring? whatever field for Jenna to sing the National Anthem for the Utes Baseball game. She did a great job and it was fun to hear her sing. The game was super boring... 0-0 in like the 5th inning until Bradley finally arrived! Then the teams actually started scoring! After the game we went to check out the new mall downtown. Salt Lake finally has some glamour!!! I loved the new City Creek! We also had to check out this super nice Harmons that we have heard about. Can I tell you how much we miss quality grocery stores??? A LOT.
Day TWO SLC
Today was Nessa, Shadoe and Chance's special day. We headed down town to the Temple and attended their sealing. It was a very special day and Chance was way too cute. I love attending sealings and listening to the sealer. All of the advice they give is relevant whether you have been married 1 day to 60 years. When Chance was brought in I wanted to die he was so cute and it was just amazing to know that they can be together forever now. After the sealing we took pictures and then ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We went to the zoo after lunch and then went to Jenna's dance competition for her last dance. She did so well I'm sad I haven't been able to see her dance! After that Brad and I took Chance and met up with Jodi, Glade and Alex (Birth Fam... in case you forgot). Chance loved Glade and Jodi... I definitely don't have the whole kid thing down yet... I don't know what to do with them once they start crying or even how to keep them entertained... But they sure did! It was great to catch up with them!
Day ONE
We arrived at the Long Beach Port! Due to the size of the groups luggage and the fact that there were 8 of us... the boys dropped the girls off and then proceeded to park the cars at the hotel we would later be staying in. After about an hour or so we were able to begin the boarding process. It was so nice to finally be on the ship. The girls all tried to be prepared by taking motion sickness pills, but we don't know if it was the medicine or the ship that made us feel so loopy. Once we got on the ship we checked out our staterooms and then explored the ship. The girls played the fun game (which lasted the entire trip) of SPOT THE MORMONS. Let me tell you.... we are soooooo easy to pick out. And we were 100% correct 100% of the time. We ate lunch at the buffet-our very first of too many trips to the buffet. Then there was a safety briefing... at that point I had absolutely no clue where we were on the ship and I'm not quite sure how effective this safety briefing-cramming 2600 people on one deck of the ship was.. All I could think of was---- I sure hope this safety briefing is much more detailed than the one done on the Titanic. Cause if 2600 of us were running around screaming on this deck... more than half would have been pushed off into the ocean. After that it was time to get ready for our first dinner. We couldn't wait. I had steak and Brad had some kind of fish. For dessert Brad began his Cheese Tour (there were 5 different cheeses-he had a different one each night) and also ordered cheesecake. I ordered the Chocolate Melting cake (my first of 4 nights... ) and it was delicious! There was a welcome aboard show that we went to which had dancing and comedians. We then went to the hot tub and after it got too hot played UNO past midnight.
Day TWO
Catalina Island. We ate breakfast and headed to the island. We rented a golf cart and went off in search of something magical on this tiny island. (how can people live there)... We found an amazing zip line---too bad we all wore flip flops--- and breathtaking views. We spent maybe 2-3 hours on the island and ended our journey at a candy store... (like we needed more junk)... Today was formal night so the girls wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get ready so we headed back to the ship... laid out for a bit... ordered some pina coladas while the boys played shuffle board. The dinner was more fancy than usual... the menu more fancy than my taste... (not hard to do) So I ordered the steak once again..as well as a few other dishes... Brad ordered lobster and other dishes as well and dessert was exactly the same as the night before :) We went to a few late night comedy shows, stayed up late playing UNO and catching up with old friends.
Day THREE
Ensenada aka Glorified Tijuana. :) haha Let me just say how grateful I was to be traveling with 3 guys who spoke Spanish. We walked around in the main town for a little bit.. Brad bought a chess set.. then we decided to go and see the main attraction of Ensenada-La Bufadora. The guys found us the cheapest taxi available... and then the fear set in that we were being kidnapped.... the driver took us down this long dirt road and I was thinking to myself... we are going to the main attraction here and they don't even have a decent road??? are we sure he really is taking us to La Bufadora and not to some remote location to rob us and leave us stranded???--- Well I sure was wrong... we ended up safely in La Bufadora---full of 400 shops and a blow hole. We ate tacos at a little taco stand which was delicious as well as some churros. MMMM. After we had walked and shopped as much as we wanted we headed back to the ship. We laid out again and then got ready for dinner. After dinner we went to singstar which is like karaoke, but with a live band so you feel like a rockstar. It was pretty funny. After that we headed to the deck dance party and then at 11:30pm the mexican buffet began... Let me tell you... we never stopped eating... EVER! We stayed up late once again getting our last cup of hot cocoa and plate of fries in our belly.
Day FOUR
Day @ Sea. Since there were no attractions to see, we decided to let ourselves sleep in. This is really easy to do since we didn't have a window. Brad and I slept in until 10 and then went to get omelets for B-fast. There was a chocolate bar right after breakfast with delicious pineapple, apples, banana and tropical fruit. After that we went to the newlywed show. They had a couple who had been married 45, 20, and 4 days participate. The 4 day couple were on their honeymoon--- and LDS. It was pretty funny. We had the newlyweds join us for a game of minigolf after the show. We laid out again the guys played shuffleboard-- ate some french fries and then got ready for dinner. We sat in the hot tub for a little while and then went to back to back comedy shows. and then 2 more comedy shows later in the evening.
Day FIVE
BYE BYE cruise ship hello Huntington Beach/Shopping/Avengers! We ate breakfast and left the Carnival Inspiration behind. We stayed in Newport and did a little shopping before checking into the hotel... Bradley and I both got new watches. We may have a problem. His is this charcoal Michael Kors and I got my longed for white Fossil. After shopping we went and checked out the hotel and everyone weighed themselves... don't worry Brad and I were both 10 lbs heavier than we were before the cruise. BARF. and don't worry Brad will lose it all in one day... me I'm not so lucky! Shouldn't have drank so much hot cocoa or have eaten soooo many plates of fries! ah! We then went to eat at Wahoos or Yahoos or Wala wala.. whatever you prefer. They are a very delicious mexican joint on the Blvd. that runs right into Huntington Beach. Pretty much everyone ended up buying a sweatshirt because we were all freezing that night and did not come prepared for the cool sea wind. After shopping around we headed back to the hotel. The boys (Brad, Lips and Joe) went to the gym and the girls (me, Tiff, Kandance) + Darren headed to the store to get treats... fitting right? We hung out in the room after that and I completely crashed.
Day SIX
Newport Beach. Today was freezing.. or so we thought. We didn't take any swim gear to the beach. The boys ended up playing beach baseball while the girls walked the pier and the various shops. We then joined the boys in baseball-Lips, Tiff, Brad and I vs. Darren Shantelle, Kandace and Joe. We lost, but we had a ton of fun. After the game we took lots of ocean pics. I love them. We ate at Charlies Chili. Nothing like Chili Cheese Fries. Then we headed to Long Beach to take Ryan and Tiff to the Airport. It was sad to see them leave! We miss them! The rest of us headed back to our hotel... The boys got absolutely FRIED. Poor things. Kandace and I made a trip to Wal-Mart to combine all of our pictures onto CD and in the meantime Joey and Brad had a mini missionary experience with an older gentleman at the bar. We got back and went to Deseret Book to buy the man a spanish BOM and a MOTAB CD. Then we went and took pics at the Newport Temple. It was gorgeous. After that we drove around forever trying to find somewhere to eat and ended up at California Pizza Kitchen... MMMMMM... When we got back to the hotel Joey and Brad gave their present to the man. Hopefully something will come of it. We'll see I guess. We hung out for a little bit but it was getting late and I crashed again.. Don't know what happened afterwards...
Day SEVEN
HOME... We left early so that we could get home early. I had no idea just how close LA is to Phoenix... 5 hours. Soooo nice....except when you get a flat tire 20 minutes outside of Phoenix. We did one of those fix a flats and took Dar and Shantelle home then proceeded to the nearest Big O who told us that our 3 month old tire could not be repaired. SERIOUSLY??? So we ended up buying a new tire and hanging out at the nicest Wendy's I've ever been to. We are sooo grateful that our tire hadn't blown out because we had drove with a nail in it from Tucson to Salt Lake from Salt Lake to LA and from LA to Phoenix. What a trooper of a tire. Once we were back on the road we picked up our puppy who was so glad to see us and then were finally home. Sleeping in my non rocking bed never felt so good.
